Jennifer Ann McAllister (born July 9, 1996), also known as jennxpenn, is an American

internet personality An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...

, actress, and clothing designer. McAllister is best known for her work on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

, where she has amassed over 3.5 million subscribers, and was nominated for a

Shorty Award The Shorty Awards (also known as “The Shortys”) honors the most innovative work globally in digital and social media by brands, agencies, nonprofits and creators. The Shortys’ mission is to celebrate, inspire and push the boundaries of exce ...

and four

Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards is an annual awards show that airs on the Fox television network. The awards honor the year's biggest achievements in music, film, sports, television, fashion, social media, and more, voted by viewers living in the United S ...

. In 2015, McAllister made her acting debut with the GRB Studio film '' Bad Night''. She went on to lead the

YouTube Red YouTube Premium (formerly Music Key and YouTube Red) is a subscription service offered by the video platform YouTube. The service provides ad-free access to content across the service, as well as access to premium YouTube Originals programming ...

series '' Foursome'' from 2016 to 2018, and starred in the Hulu original series ''All Night''. For the former, McAllister won the

Streamy Award The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and writing. The forma ...

for Best Actress.

Early life

McAllister was born on July 9, 1996 in

Bucks County, Pennsylvania Bucks County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 646,538, making it the fourth-most populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is Doylestown. The county is named after the Englis ...

, where she attended Council Rock High School South in

Holland, Pennsylvania Holland is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Northampton Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Northampton Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located next to Newtown, Bucks Coun ...

, about 25 miles north of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Career

McAllister created her

channel jennxpenn at the age of 12 on January 15, 2009, but already had prior YouTube experience through a channel created beforehand with a friend. The channel has since amassed over 3.5 million subscribers, and her internet work has earned her nominations for a

and four

. In March 2013, McAllister signed a YouTube partnership deal with

AwesomenessTV Awesomeness (abbreviation of AwesomenessTV) is an American-based film and television studio as well as a multi-channel based multilingual television network owned by Paramount Digital Studios, a division of Paramount Global. Established in June ...

; she appeared primarily in

skits Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

and segments on their YouTube channel. She also starred in the pilot episode of AwesomenessTV's

sketch comedy Sketch comedy comprises a series of short, amusing scenes or vignettes, called "sketches", commonly between one and ten minutes long, performed by a group of comic actors or comedians. The form developed and became popular in vaudeville, and is ...

series of the same name, which premiered on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

on July 1, 2013. On April 20, 2014, she went on 16-city North American tour in celebration of reaching 1 million subscribers on YouTube with fellow YouTuber

Tyler Ward Tyler Ray Ward (born March 12, 1984) is an American independent singer, songwriter, and producer. On his YouTube channel, he has over 2 million subscribers with 5+ billion views. Ward also has a strong social media following on sites like Facebo ...

, which took place at the beginning of May and the entirety of June. In June 2014, McAllister signed a YouTube management deal with Fullscreen. At the 2015

Playlist Live Playlist Live is an annual convention held in Orlando, Florida, and Washington D.C., primarily for YouTube and TikTok content creators. The convention has been held annually since 2010. The convention has also been held in the tri-state area as we ...

convention, it was announced that McAllister and fellow YouTuber Lauren Elizabeth Luthringshausen would be starring in a film titled '' Bad Night''. The film was produced by GRB Entertainment, and was released through

Vimeo on Demand Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

in July of that same year. Also in 2015, McAllister made her writing debut with the

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

''Really Professional Internet Person'', which was released in August 2015 and became a ''New York Times'' Best Seller. In February 2016, it was announced that McAllister would portray the leading role of Addie Fixler in the

original series '' Foursome''. In an interview with ''

TheWrap ''TheWrap'' is an American online news website covering the business of entertainment and media via digital, print and live events. It was founded by journalist Sharon Waxman Sharon I. Waxman (born c.1963) is an American author, journalist, ...

'', she described her relationships with the series' cast, stating that "I grew really close to everyone. It was kind of like a summer camp … I was on set for 12 and a half hours every day, so you’re really close with these people." The series was released in March of that same year, and ran for four seasons until 2018. For her performance, she won the

for Best Actress at the

6th Annual Streamy Awards The 6th Annual Streamy Awards was the sixth installment of the Streamy Awards honoring streaming television series. The awards were broadcast live on YouTube on October 4, 2016 from The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. They were hoste ...

. In 2018, McAllister was cast in the role of Deanna Hoffman in the

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

series '' All Night''; the series premiered on May 11, 2018 and ended after one season. In the year following, she competed in the first season of the

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

-style

web show A web series (also known as a web show) is a series of screenplay, scripted or Improvisation, non-scripted online videos, generally in Episode, episodic form, released on the Internet, which first emerged in the late 1990s and became more promine ...

''The Reality House'', a series inspired by ''Big Brother'' where several YouTubers compete for $25,000.

Personal life

In July 2013, McAllister moved from her home in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

. In September 2014, McAllister partnered with the nonprofit organization Our Time, releasing a video telling her viewers aged eighteen or above to register themselves to vote in the United States. In November 2020, in a video titled "addressing your assumptions about me...", McAllister

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBT people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. Framed and debated as a privacy issue, coming out of ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

Books

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:McAllister, Jenn 1996 births 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American writers Actresses from Pennsylvania American YouTubers Bisexual actresses Living people People from Bucks County, Pennsylvania Streamy Award winners LGBT YouTubers American bisexual actors